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tv   CBS 5 Eyewitness News at Noon  CBS  December 14, 2012 12:00pm-12:30pm PST

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that's about 60 miles northeast of new york city. the police say at least 26 people were killed, 18 of them were children. the gunman is identified as ryan lanza. he is dead. we don't know yet how he died. the police say he died in the school. he was in his early 20s, perhaps 24 years old, originally from the newtown area. lanza's mother was a teacher at this elementary school and most of the shootings occured in her classroom. she and some of her students were killed. also, a body was found in a home connected to lanza and the motive for these shootings is not known at this hour. i want to go now to john miller as we are still grappling with this terrible tragedy which i think melissa mackriss, a mother put it so well. this is a parents' worst nightmare. certainly parents of those
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school children who heard this news rushed to the school, many of them reunited with their children but some parents learned the very sad news that their children had been killed and have been with the governor of connecticut and others who are speaking with them. i know you've been speaking with your law enforcement sources. describe what's going on at this moment as they are trying to find more information about the shooter and how he was connected to this. >> they're doing background investigations into the shooter but also going to locations associated with the shooter. not just directly associated with ryan lanza, his residence-- and they're looking far location in new jersey there-- but also his family's residences in and around connecticut. he has a father who is down in stamford. he has a mother who is a teacher at the school whose house is in newtown. they went there. ha's where they saw what appeared to be a body and
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they're doing an entry there to see what else they can learn inside that house. and, of course, they're spinning all the records and databases to get additional background. that will give them information but it won't give them the why. the only way they're going to get the why is to get his into his notes, get into his computers, get into his friends and what he was saying about it. >> john miller, i want to go to bob orr who's been reporting any information about the guns involved. >> one second on that. in addition, the a.p. is reporting police have ryan lanza's brother in custody. and this is -- we wouldn't make too much of that. in a case like this you would take that person into custody and start those interviews. the question is where did they pick him up and is there any involvement beyond the fact he's his brother and they want information from him. but as you know we've heard echoes throughout the day of a second person being in custody.
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that may be just to illicit information to his brother. too early to tell. >> o'donnell: thank you for sharing those details that the associated press is reporting his brother is in custody. a detail in this continuing investigation. i want to show everybody now live the white house press briefing room. the brady briefing room where the president is expected to appear 3:15 and will address the nation in what is this school shooting, this massacre in newtown, connecticut, the second deadliest school shooting in american history. we will then hear from the governor of connecticut. let's go now to bob orr who has been speaking with law enforcement officials and learning new details about the guns that were involved in this case. two handguns, at least one rifle. and then also bob, this a.p. report that john just brought us up to date on, that the brother may be in custody.
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what have you learned? >> i keep asking that question, all of our folks here working the phones and we're asking the question of various sources, is there one shooter? is there more than one shooter? who's the second person that was detained at the scene? and i have to tell you, so far all of the information we're getting-- it always comes with a caveat-- but it all seems to suggest there was one shooter. the person who was detyned near the shooting scene was a man described as wearing b.d.u.s, khaki fatigues and working near the woods. i had a number of people tell me we don't think he's a player in this. that said, now the associated press says they're talking to the shooter's younger brother as john made the point this might just be due diligence by investigators to obviously want to talk to available family members and friends and close associates. so we can't say one way or the other and i think we need to be careful about not getting out
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too far too fast. because as we've learned in the past these big stories are kind of malleable, the facts, and they tend to change. on the guns, we have a law enforcement official, norah, telling us that with the shooter's body inside the school the police have recovered two handguns. one is a sig sauer, as john mentioned, that's the service revolver the secret service carries and the other is a 9 millimeter, the weapon of choice for many place departments. both are efficient weapons. kind of high quality weapons. and would have allowed if those were the two guns used in the attack when they seem to be the shooter great mobility and pretty precise targeting. in the car, in the vehicle we're told they found a bush master type rifle. this is a -- you know, one of these assault weapons or some of the automatic assault weapons capable of firing the .223 round. the bush master is the kind of gun used many years ago in the
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infamous sniper attacks here in washington. john allen mohammed and lee boyd malvo used that bush master to very deadly target people around the washington area. but as far as we know-- and it's still very early-- as far as we know, that rifle, the bulkier more difficult to maneuver weapon, that rifle was not apparently used-- and i say apparently-- in the attack because it seems to indicate the gunman died with only the two handguns. a trace is still being done by the a.t.f. and law enforcement officials to figure out the origin of these guns. this is standard in crimes and certainly standard in high profile crimes if the dead suspect lanza, if he owned them legally or get them in someone else or if they might have been stolen. at least preliminarily i'm getting indications that these weapons appear to have been his, the gunman. he was 24 years old and was in the age range that made him
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eligible to have these weapons. we've also been looking through the databases and as far as we can tell lanza did not have a criminal record, does notappear in any government terror watch lists, there again he would easily qualify to meet the requirements of registration to own these weapons. investigators are learning a lot i get the sense they're knowing a lot more than they're sharing. one of the early priorities is twofold: one to comfort the families, put the families in the loop of the best available information and from our perspective in washington federal officials and john will tell you there are very mindful of not getting ahead of state and local officials who are the first responders in this case. we haven't heard from the connecticut governor. there's a protocol that the information is kind of rolled out in an efficient and effective way but also there's a
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political element to that. we know president is going to talk shortly and we understand the governor may have something to say also a little later on. norah? >> o'donnell: bob orr, thank you for that. i want to remind everyone that at 3:15 we are expecting to hear from the prede the united states who will be in the white house briefing room. i want to bring you now bob schieffer, our chief washington correspondent and host of "face the nation." bob, we're expected to hear from the president shortly and this is one of those moments where this country is in mourning and trying to figure out why something -- this horrible would happen and the president will offer words of condolences. >> well, it's going to be interesting to see what he does say and, norah, because -- i mean, the question that we're all going to have to confront before this is over one way or the other is is this the new norm? is this what we are going to have to settle for? you know, normally in the united
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states when we have a problem we figure out a way to deal with it. look what and how much our society has changed. the airports, for example once terrorism became a threat to this country but over and over we are seeing things happen where people who are mentally disturbed, people who have a grudge of some sort have access to these weapons. is this the way it's going to be from here on in? i think it will be interesting to see what the president has to say on that very point. yes, i'm sure he's going to offer condolences but is he going to say maybe we should not settle for things like this? maybe we should start thinking about how we can make it harder for people to carry out the kind of acts that we saw here like we saw last week in a shopping mall like we saw a couple years ago when gabrielle giffords was shot like we saw at the midnight show
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in colorado. there is a strain running through all of these things. people say gosh it's so awful but then you don't hear much about it afterward. >> o'donnell: that's an important point, bob. the president will be appearing in the brady press briefing room which is named after james brady who took one of the bullets that was directed at president ronald reagan. that briefing room was named after him then james brady and his wife became life long advocates of gun control. but we have heard from the press briefing that jay carney says now is not the time to talk about the assault weapons ban. >> schieffer: i guess the follow-up is when will be the time? but my guess is the president probably won't take questions today. but it will be interesting to see what happens here and what's going to happen after this. how bad does it have to be for people to say this is as far as
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we're going to let this go. i think that's the question we as americans have to confront now. >> o'donnell: bob schieffer, stay with us as we await president obama at the white house to address the nation. i want to go now to major garrett who is there, who's in the briefing room. major, any indication what we may hear from the president? >> norah, we don't have an indication of how the president will mark this incredibly grim day in national history and a very grim moment for his own presidency. as was indicated, the president has responded to these mass shootings in the past identifying to the country his own personal reaction as a father of two young girls understanding it is a moment for the country to reflect on the issues bob schieffer raised a moment ago. but also tried from a president's perspective perspective to put this if possible into some broader context and offer condolences to the most immediate victims and to the nation grieving hour by hour as the horrific details of this tragedy unfold. the president will in just a
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minute a couple moments behind me at the podium try to do all of those things. as he was mentioned a moment ago jay carney was asked first about the assault weapons ban and asked a follow-up question. when is the time to talk about it? he said i can't tell you when the time is to talk about that but it's not today. the president doesn't want to inject, as jay carney described it, a political and policy debate into this moment of tragedy with a country still trying to grable with the underlying details and with what it may or may not mean and the president will try to address those issues when he takes the podium in a couple minutes. norah? >> major garrett, stand by for just a moment. also i understand that the flags have been ordered to half-staff at the u.s. capital. and that probably means in other places around washington as this country mourns this school shooting at the sandy hook
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elementary school for where at least 26 are dead, including 18 children, where it looks like the gunman, ryan lanza, 24 years old decided to target young children who were students of his mother who was a teacher there. he also got into an altercation with the school principal and she was also killed. one mother telling us here at cbs that this principal was a model principal, a great teacher this is described as a great elementary school and a very safe area in newtown and many parents struggling with this enormous tragedy and of -- melissa mackriss said to us whose daughter is a fourth grader, this is a parent's worst nightmare. we've just received what is described as a two-minute warning which means the president will be in the white house press briefing room shortly. we'll take you to those live pictures of the white house press briefing room where the president is expected to make a
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statement to the nation. it's not clear whether he will take questions from reporters and shortly after we hear from the president we are expected to lear from the governor of connecticut, dan malloy, who has been meeting with the parents of those young children who were killed this morning in this very lensless tragedy. john, is the president about to come into the press briefing room? we'll leave that picture up so we know when the president enters. the white house is getting all of the latest information from the f.b.i. director. they're on top of this as well. >> that's right. this is a thing where, you know, the situation will light up and they'll start to get this information. in a fast-moving incident-- and this is my experience as a former assistant director of the f.b.i.-- sometimes inside
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information is overrated. which is you're getting information from n realtime from the scene, from the actual players on the ground and as we experience in trying to cover a story like that that information just because it's coming straight from the official sources and the actual witnesses also tends to change as it develops. i think what we'll see from the white house is a cautious statement that stays away from the facts and the numbers. and talks about the sentiment and for us to come together as a country in grieving and supporting this community in the parents and families of the victims. >> o'donnell: and there you see the president of the united states. >> this afternoon i spoke with governor malloy and f.b.i. director mueller. i offered governor malloy my condolences on behalf of the nation and made it clear he will have every single resource that he needs to investigate this heinous crime care for the
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victims, counsel their families. we've endured too many of these tragedies in the past two years and each time i learn the news i react not as a president but as anybody else would: as a parent. and that's especially true today. i know there's not a parent in america who doesn't feel the same overwhelming grief that i do. the majority of those who died today were children, beautiful little kids between the ages of five and ten years old. they had their entire lives ahead of them: birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of
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their own. among the following were also teachers -- fallen were also teachers, men and women who helped children fulfill their dreams. so our hearts are broken today. for the parents and grandparents sisters and brothers of these little children and for the families of the adults who were lost. our hearts are broken for the parents of the survivors as well. for as blessed as they are to have their children home tonight they know that their children's innocence has been torn away from them too early and we know of no words that will ease their pain. as i country we have been through this too many times whether it's an elementary school in newtown or a shopping mall in oregon or a temple in
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wisconsin or a movie theater in aurora or a street corner in chicago. these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods and these children are our children. and we're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics. this evening, michelle and i will do what i know every parent in america will do, which is hug our children a little tighter and we'll tell them that we love them. and we'll remind each other how deeply we love one another. but there are families in connecticut who cannot do that tonight and they need all of us right now. in our days to come, the community needs us to be at our best as americans and i will do everything in my power as president to help. because, while nothing can fill the space of a lost child or loved one all of us can extend
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the hand to those in need to remind name we are there for them that we are praying for them, that the love they felt for those they lost endures not just in their memories but also in ours. may god bless the memory of the victims and in the words of scripture heal the broken hearted and bind up their wounds >> o'donnell: there you have the president of the united states speaking as the commander in chief but also as an emotional father and saying we have endured two many of these tragedies specifically mentioning some of the recent mass shootings that have occurred and even those in his hometown of chicago which was a very deadly summer for those in
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chicago he said he reacted as a parent. you saw the president choke up there for the moment as he tried to deliver his statement and pointing out a majority of the victims today were children between the ages of five and ten years old who he said had their entire lives ahead of them and he said our hearts are broken then he said we are going to have to take meaningful action. bob schieffer is with us. bob, it was interesting to hear the president allude to that something has to be done almost answering that point that you raised earlier that when is it going to get so bad that lawmakers, people in washington will address what's happened. >> schieffer: i think, norah, what we saw today is a barack obama that we haven't seen very
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much in public before. this president during the campaign was sometimes criticized for not showing emotion for seeing problems in the abstract. this is someone who was touched by what he saw and heard today. and when he said we're going to have to take some action this has happened too many times. we'll see in the days ahead what that amounts to but, you know, people don't talk about trying to get these guns out of the hands of these emotionally disturbed people. and, you know, when people talk about gun control and they talk about taking hunter's guns away and that kind of thing, that's not the problem here. the problem here is putting these deadly weapons on a high shelf like you would put poison in a house, rat poison or
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something else. putting it where people who might use it for the wrong reasons are not able to get it. it's a very serious problem, it's a very complicated problem but perhaps many will be the day that starting with the president washington finally got serious about trying to do something about this. when i heard the president say these are our children it really kind of brings it home. >> o'donnell: it does bring it home. major garrett is in the press briefing room and, major, this was a very emotional president obama. >> really, norah, there's nothing i can or should add. the american public saw exactly what the president's emotional reaction to this was. it was evident to everyone who watched the president pause, to take in the moment of that pause and they saw him wipe a tear from his eyes. that in all ways encapsulates
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the president's motional reaction and when he today the country we've seen too many of these tragedies and that it's time to take meaningful action, comma, regardless of the politics, he said something he has never said before, an immediate reaction to events like this which he has witnessed in his presidency. this could i think fairly be described both as a matter of politics, as a matter of presidential absorption, a turning point. because the president has faced these grim historical facts before. mass shootings, victims, children, inexplicable horror and not reacted in the way he did today either on an emotional level or suggesting to the country that he is prepared to take action and perhaps political risks he hasn't before to change the underlying dynamics that brought this tragedy and grimly historic day to the briefing room and the rest of the country. >> o'donnell: major garrett pointing out that president obama said we are going to have to come together to prevent
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meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this regardless of the politics. we want to go now to len bestoff. he is a reporter who has been in lockdown in a house right next to the school and, len, tell us what you've been able to see? >> we have been able to see a lot from here but we've had to stay in this home where, as you can imagine, the person woke up in this bedroom today had no idea what was going to be unfolding just to the left of his home here. this is the bank side, the southwest side of the school and you can see that there are still police guarding the gateway area there and what one of the people who lived in this house told me is that around 9:30 this morning toward the back end of the school where she actually went to school she saw little kindergarteners being escorted by about six armed police officers, their guns drawn, both
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long guns and small guns trying to bring them to safety. it's just something unimaginable in a town like this. this is a town of about 30,000 people, the new york city and hartford suburbs where, frankly, we never come forstories because things like this and really not a lot of crime at all happens here. and this is going to be something that's not going to take days, it's not going to take weeks or months or years. this is going to be decades. hopefully when people can absorb what happens here the magnitude of this is just tremendous and the loss that so many people are feeling here, a lot of them just don't want to even go on camera right now and talk with us and you because it's too difficult to handle and we are doing the best we can to comfort them as much as we are to report the story. >> o'donnell: less, houfrp were you able to see when the children were being evacuated
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from the school and reunited with their parents who arrived on the scene? >>. >> on this end, there wasn't a lot of reunions going on. on this end, police were trying to secure the scene. you can see there's a road here just behind the school and there was particular interest in the gate here, we're not sure why. there's also a wooded area just to the back of these portable classrooms where police were going through with canine dogs. also there's a basketball court and a playground that they were searching very aggressively, find any kind of clues. you may notice that there's a chopper flying above the school, that's a state police chopper that's been circling for hours out here. we also have seen on and off throughout the day tactical teams on the roof of the school, both the portable classrooms and the main part of the building which is to the righttor east of the portable classrooms you're
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looking at right now. clearly a chaotic scene right here and then the front is where the reunions were going on which were equally stressful, scary, and more emotions than anybody could really describe. >> o'donnell: len bestoff, thank you, who is in lock down at a home just near a school. just to recap, we just heard from the president of the united states and what bob schieffer says is a president we have not seen like. this very emotional. it's rare that you see a president wipe away tears while delivering a statement and ending his statement by saying may god bless the memories of the victims. we want to update you, this is cbs news continuing coverage of the deadly school shooting in newtown, connecticut, i'm norah o'donnell along with john miller at the cbs broadcast center and bob orr is reporting in washington. a few minutes ago at the white
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house we heard from president obama who who addressed today's violence in connecticut saying americans have endured too many of these tragedies. we saw him brush away tears and he said he like other american parents will hug his children a little tighter tonight. he said nothing can fill this space of a lost child or a loved one. he said they had their entire lives ahead of them. we want to update the facts in this investigation so far what we've been able to learn. a man armed with two handguns opened fire at about 9:30 in the sandy hook elementary school in newtown, connecticut. that is a town about 660 miles northeast of new york city, a lot of people who work in new york city travel in from this area of fairfield county. the police say 26 people were
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killed, 18 were children. children who were just aged five to ten years old the gunman have identified ryan lanza. police officials said he took his own life based on our preliminary reporting we have no criminal record and the guns were his own guns. he was originally from this town of newtown and his mother was apparently a teacher that the school and most shootings took place in his mother's classroom. we've learned a body was found in a home connected to lanza and police are said to be questioning lanza's younger brother. so the motive for this shooting remains a mystery. but we're getting more and more details at this hour about the gunman just 24 years old, his connection to the that his mother was aea

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